Councillors are demanding the reopening of dozens of beds at a much-loved community hospital this winter.

Every political group on Newcastle Borough Council has backed a motion calling on the NHS to get mothballed beds at Bradwell Hospital back open.

It was directed at clinical commissioning group (CCG) accountable officer, Marcus Warnes, after the NHS body shut more than 100 beds at five community hospitals across North Staffordshire. The motion has also been sent to NHS England.

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Borough councillor Alison Gardner said: “If you chat to anyone in Newcastle they will tell you that they want Bradwell to remain a fully-functional community hospital. They want wards that provide the step-down intermediate care that we really need in the area."

Health bosses have sanctioned the reopening of Jackfield ward at Burslem's Haywood Hospital during building work to create an extra 45 beds at the Royal Stoke. It comes as former Silverdale care home Brighton House is reopening as a 28-bed unit.

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Ms Gardner added: "I am fed up of the knee-jerk opening of previously-closed wards like Jackfield, squeezing new beds into bathrooms and cupboards, and commissioning nursing homes here, there and everywhere only to find some of them not fit for purpose.”

64 beds were closed at Bradwell Hospital

Fellow councillor Dave Jones said: "The CCG has it within its power and finances to reopen the beds tomorrow if it wanted to. The CCG is completely unaccountable to the public, local councillors and parliament - and it seems to be only accountable to NHS England.

“We can continue to apply pressure to the CCG and NHS England by saying that the health economy in North Staffordshire is in extreme crisis and without the opening of these beds at Bradwell we will be plunged deeper into the crisis at one of the most dangerous times of the year.”

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Tory group leader Councillor Simon Tagg said: “Places like Bradwell Hospital have an important role to play for the foreseeable future and that is why I support this motion.”

Bradwell Hospital campaigners are tonight preparing to attend a consultation with the CCG over the future of the area's community hospitals.

Protester and NHS worker Janet Smith said: “I am very passionate about this because I have worked at Bradwell Hospital and Longton Cottage Hospital and I know community hospitals are needed. They are essential to a patient's healing process and cannot just be cut out.”

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A CCG spokesman said: “We have clearly set out the clinical evidence which says that in many cases a long, unnecessary stay in a community bed is not the best outcome for patients leaving an acute hospital bed.

"To deal with pending winter pressures, additional home-based capacity has been commissioned along with additional nursing care beds at Brighton House and at Jackfield ward.”